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"Plant habitat slashed?" (Imperial Valley Press, 7/29/07) "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a 5,700-acre cut in land designated to protect a threatened desert plant in the Imperial Valley Sand Dunes Recreation Area. The move is the latest in a seven-year dispute pitting environmental groups against off-road enthusiasts with one of Imperial County’s most critical natural and economic resources -- the sand dunes -- at the center of the debate....In 2000, in the face of a lawsuit then by environmental groups over the plant, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management settled the issue by agreeing to close 48,000 acres of the sand dunes." (May require free registration.) http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/07/30/news/news02.txt

"Our opinion: More dunes, more money" (Imperial Valley Press, 7/30/07) Editorial: "The first rush of dunes visitors won’t descend on Imperial County until October, when the cooler weather kicks off the season at one of the country’s biggest and busiest off-roading playgrounds. Yet the wind-swept and sun-baked dunes, as empty as they may be today, are still making news, much to the delight of those with an economic stake and much to the detriment of those environmentalists bent on controlling its usage in order to preserve plants and animals that call the desert home."(May require free registration.)http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/07/31/opinion/ed02_7-31-07.txt

"Proposed rule would shrink plant's habitat" (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 7/27/07)"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule Friday that would shrink by 25 percent the boundaries of critical habitat set aside for survival of a plant threatened with extinction in an area popular with off-road enthusiasts in Imperial County. The new proposed protection for Peirson's milk-vetch...stems from a lawsuit....The service proposes a 16,108-acre protected area in the Algodones Dunes, an area managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management as part of the Imperial San Dunes Recreation Area...."http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_H_vetch28.3d66229.html